People who feed wild birds do so to provide food and nutrients to the birds, but more importantly for some, to be able to watch the birds as they feed. This is the reason why window mounted feeders are so popular, because a person can watch the birds come right to their window while the person is in the comfort of his or her home.
Many conventional (previous) versions of window bird feeders use suction cups to adhere to the outside of the window. There are several drawbacks to this mounting method, including: (1) both the window and suction cups must be very clean to adhere properly; (2) in order to mount or fill the feeder, the person must either reach out of the window and up to reach it (which is difficult especially for the elderly), or more likely the feeder must be hung and filled from outside; (3) hanging and filling a bird feeder from outside is difficult if the window is almost too high to reach, or is positioned behind bushes or landscaping; (4) the person must go outside to refill even if the weather is cold, raining, or muddy; (5) the person cannot open their window very far with the feeder attached, because the feeder will hit the upper window; and (6) suction cups do not work well in cold weather.
Another conventional (previous) version of a window bird feeder sits on the window sill, so that the window closes on top of the feeder, and side pieces extend out from the feeder to close off the remainder of the window opening. An example of such a bird feeder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,167. Some drawbacks with this version of mounting include: (1) the home owner cannot lock that window once the bird feeder is in place; and (2) in cold weather, the feeder has no insulating properties, so it effectively allows colder air into the building.
Another drawback of a certain style of conventional bird feeders is that they are designed to rest on the window sill for mechanical support, even though they use a tension rod to partially hold the feeder in place. The tension rod only keeps the top of the feeder from tipping forward, out of the window. An example of such a bird feeder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,770. Some of the other conventional bird feeders can be mounted above the window sill (in the center of the window area, for example), however, such conventional feeders either use suction cups to hold the feeder to the window itself, or they use mounting hardware that must be drilled into the window frame structure.
One characteristic of many conventional bird feeders is that they must be filled while the user is positioned outside the building structure. If the conventional bird feeder has a pivotable or rotatable roof member, then that roof member has a pivot point that is closer to the “back” of the feeder, which is the portion of the feeder that is proximal to the window or building to which the feeder is mounted. In that manner, the pivotable roof member can be lifted up (rotated) by a user who is standing at the “front” of the feeder (i.e., the portion of the feeder that is distal from the window or building to which the feeder is mounted), and once the roof member has been lifted up and out of the way, the user can pour bird seed into the feeder tray.